by johnt
23. August 2011 14:16
The actual CRM system that is bought will, in the main, have the same or similar functionality, the primary one is contact management, after that, companies will use it for sales monitoring and telesales opportunities.
The cliché ‘Sales people want a one night stand and marketers want a relationship’ applies here, the key element is establishing a culture within the organisation that sees the benefit of completing all the contact details correctly and maintaining the information. If the scheme doesn’t have a universal buy in then the effectiveness declines and it becomes merely a list of contacts and you might as well not bother with the expense and just have a spread sheet.
Sales people all have their different ways of dealing with clients and also how they record their contacts with clients. Some want to maintain detailed records while others rely upon their memory, the latter group are the ones that can cause CRM systems to be less effective, they may be very good sales people and ‘haven’t the time’ to complete details of every conversation, however they do have an impact on the rest of the team. Particularly if they are off and someone else has to pick up their work.
Therefore anything that can be done to make the inputting of data quicker and easier will help ensure everyone is getting the correct information. Postcode Lookup will help as the sales person needs to input just the house/building number and postcode and the application then completes all the detail. At the same time if they are taking down other details it would be helpful to validate the email address and telephone number in real time as it is input to ensure complete confidence in their data.
Getting the data right in the first place at least gives you a chance of turning a one night stand into a relationship.